The Classical Music Guide Forums

Once again, the big fat Fanfare (this time) is loaded with reviews. Among them, I found only four things of deep interest. The Gramophone - nothing, except good reviews of things I already have and good articles. Interesting to note Trifonov did not get a great review on his new Mendelssohn/Alkan CD...

Even if I was Cziffra or any of the known Bartokians who pay the piece, I don't think I'd take a chance with only a two week notice! Whew! From Slipped Disc today: "After two days of trying to find a star pianist who could play Bartok’s second concerto and get along with conductor Klaus Mäkelä, the ...

So many versions: orchestral, string quartet, piano, fortepiano, harpsichord, choral. This work has been well documented on discs. Among the ones I enjoy hearing is the "choral" one [EMI/Electrola 14275, 5 CDs, all Haydn's great choral works]. Another is Muti conducting VPO, (live 1987, Salzburg) [D...

WOW! What an extraordinary reading of Tony Abbott's comments ... thought-provoking, wake-up calls, stunning writing and communicative style. Truths therein in abundance. Thank you for that one!

Yes, I am very much aware of Weingartner the composer. I wish I had him conducting his own orchestral works or acting as a pianist in some of his lieder, alas, nothing available that way. I have some songs/lieder sung by DFD and others. I guess here, I'm just illustrating the legendary conducting ab...

Interesting to read all of this about the teaching profession. My daughter graduated from Babson College/Massachusetts and decided she wanted to be a teacher. It was off to NYU and got her masters. Accepted a job in Brooklyn, NY. I helped her get set up there, furniture placement, etc., and she was ...

As I am working on a series of radio broadcasts devoted to conductor Felix Weingartner [1863-1942] , this means all his recordings were made during the days of 78rpm recordings. In looking over his discography, it is amazing so much material went to shellac! All Beethoven's nine symphonies, [Weingar...

I've got a few I really enjoy: •Columbia/Sony - w/Ormandy/Philadelphia Orchestra, Raskin, Forrester, Lewis, etc. •Decca - w/Münchinger w/Ameling, Watts, Krenn, Krause •DGG - w/Courad/Stuttgart Orch/Cho w/Wunderlich, Sailer, Bence, others Quite a few others out there, but the above seem to have the m...

Another thread brings up Bartok's piano concertos with specific reference to No. 2 , which is, according to most, the truly pianistically difficult one. In looking over the recordings of Bartok's three piano concertos, and specifically No. 2 , it is not a work I listen to frequently, nor of 1 or 3. ...

See what I mean ... same wavelength. This is another must-have for me, too. I follow Berezovsky and I like Khachaturian. World premiere. Got have this. Thanks for making it known. UPDATE: It didn't ring an immediate bell (at almost 82, not surprising), but I have had this Koch disc since 2006. Now I...

Well, you win the 100-CD boxed set of PDQ Bach's hits. Funny, I cannot find it anywhere. You certainly don't "sound" like someone heading for 85! I think it's all the great music you hear, and we are often on the same musical wavelength. Me? I'll be 82 on June 7th, 2024. I'm still doing radio broadc...

Apparently Triff has more going in his life than we may know. [Agree, Glenn Gould was a bit sloppy - but as a pianist - profound!] You should know that DGG will soon be issuing a new CD entitled "Rachmaninoff for Two" featuring Triff and Sergei Babayan. We will get the Symphonic Dances, Suites 1 and...

Naomi Graffman's comments opened my eyes on Wang. It is apparent she really likes herself. That's not a human characteristic I like very much, but I understand it. She has been coddled and spoiled in her fame. (Earl Wild had this characteristic to a point, too.) Maybe the best word is that she is "e...

Brian, I well remember those RCA and Columbia "clubs" where you get the audition LP. One I was hoping to see one LP was devoted to pianist Earl Wild recorded it for RCA issued in 1962 [CSC-302] under the auspices of the Reader's Digest Association.. This consisted of Franz Liszt operatic paraphrases...

Can't yet locate it? Terrible feeling when you KNOW you had it, and it goes missing. One reason I never LEND CDs or books. I will make a CD copy of something if someone needs to hear it or study it. Also, I file by label and numerical catalogue number . Rarely do I actually lose something, but it ma...

Symphonically speaking, what about Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition's final movement, Great Gate of Kiev, in Ravel's incredible orchestration. This same finale is a tour de force for the original piano version as well.

This is surprising they, even with a breakup, they would cancel major performances. Even when Argerich split from Dutoit , they often performed together not letting their personal circumstances get in the way of creating great music. Indeed, how embarrassing for the agents who set up three years of ...

Shamefully, I report I have only one CD recording of Walton's Symphony No. 1, that with Sir Malcolm Sargent conducting [EMI Icon set 63412, 18 CDs]. It's been eons since I've heard it. And if I told you I acquired that set just FOR the Walton, would you believe me? Of course you would!

"The greatest recording organisation in the world" was EMI's slogan. If I did a count on just labels, I think EMI would always take first place in numbers. Now that Warner has taken over the EMI label (among others, too), I believe they have recovered well in earning $$$ from the "old" EMI product ...

Amazing to read all this of what's happening in Australia . I always think of this great country as having everything in order, thinkers, people respectful, cherish the good things in life, love great music, have a wonderful culture and have contributed many great people to the world of arts. It is ...

I bumped into an Iranian piano student today and we had some good conversation about playing Chopin and his desire to compose. Getting a bit into politics (which I try to avoid on campus when I deem it necessary; I'm not there for that!), he said to me: "I don't think there is an American Dream any...

I clicked on it - heard the first four minutes - and at 4:00 in the morning , I thought it not a good time to imbibe all Mr. Scruton discusses in his lecture. It is something I want to hear from beginning to end. It will/might give me some ideas to discuss the subject with so many young university m...

If it's got ALKAN on it, I want it. Well, MSR Records has issued [MS 1851] what is called Volume 1 of Alkan's music performed by Igor Do Amaral , born in Macau. The disc offers two titles: •Symphonie for Piano, Op. 39 [Etudes 4-7] [40:19] •Les Mois (The Months), Op. 74, Nos. 1-12 [38:01] The pianist...

Outstanding advice. Sounds like a grand teacher to me!

A man after my own heart! My radio broadcast this coming Saturday is a tribute to Welsh tenor Stuart Burrows . The man could sing Mozart opera, for sure, but it is his ability to put across the great songs of older days, Stephen Adams, May Brahe, Williams (My Little Welsh Home), Sullivan, all those ...

Incredible something like this can happen. And we think we are so safe; most of the time we are. Our lives are dependent on people maintaining these structures just as the makers of airplanes or anything else where our lives are exposed. A true tragedy.

It seems Fauré's solo piano music requires a pianist who gets this music into his heart not only his/her mind. Among the best I've found on discs is Pascal Rogé [Decca], Jean-Philppe Collard [EMI/Warner], Jean-Marc Luisada [RCA], Germaine Thyssens-Valentin [Testament], Marguerite Long [APR], Paul Cr...

Good response! In contrast to Pears, who would you rank high as tenors go in the type of repertoire Pears' sang - which embraces a lot?

mikealdren wrote: ↑
Tue Mar 26, 2024 3:23 pm
I simply don't like his voice and I find it rather whining and strained, though he's certainly not the only singer I don't like.

Mike, yours is a very interesting comment. Can you advise why Pears isn't an acquired taste for you, especially being in the UK?

I know, and can't help that I am so attracted to those I mentioned ... and then there is the question: just how many performances/recordings of any one work can we have? In most cases, except for singers and pianists, I am leaving most of the new "stuff" to the current generation (except for newly-d...

Joe, this is a VERY disturbing post. I can only say that I am glad I am not a teenager in today's world. Very enlightening and informative, this post.

Wow - my British ancestry feels the pain. How I loved England when I last visited some time ago. But even then, I wondered how the Brits survived the cost of living as I saw it.

What lovely return response! My heart goes out to you. This prostate cancer thing seems to be prevalent, but, since I know you are not that "old," one wonders how all this comes about. At least you are comfortable and it sounds like you have people around you who care for you. It sounds as though yo...

Interesting composer. I have a number of her works on CPO, which has done justice to her (including Symphony #1); solo piano, chamber music, concertos, etc., and a Gramola recording of her work along with an Austrian Gramophone, the latter two discs presenting "Ladies Only." She did a lot of composi...

You and I share similar interests in pianists! Being a piano-driven listener for many reasons, as much as I have on disc of Barenboim and, hard as I have tried (truly), I don't come back to him very often. He has recorded prolifically for many labels (and also as a conductor), but piano-wise, whethe...

Hello, Some Guy! It was good to see you appear here again after such a long absence. I was NOT happy to hear the other news you reported. I'm very sorry to learn this. I well remember meeting you at one of our NYC-meetups. I wish you well, and hopefully things will/might turn around that news. Thoug...

Very good phrase, indeed! "An acquired taste." Best thought in three words! That's exactly what happens sometimes.

My copy is a single CD. I was careful to get many of those BBC Legends discs, and some went the way of ICA Classics and I believe Medici Arts. Theirs was an excellent series of live performances with many great and recognized artists. BBC has since opened their vaults to other labels of their broadc...

Sorry to hear of his passing. I was never totally convinced of Pollini's music-making, have a number of his DG and private recordings, and like many others, felt his playing to be ultra-conservative and on the "cool," side, the latter a word used often. There was a mammoth 56-CD DG "Edition," and un...

There was another, too, with Suk as violinist, BBC Legends [4257] coupled with the Beethoven VC, all under Malcolm Sargent and the BBC Symphony, recorded 1964, 1965 respectively. So, we have a good number of this concerto with Suk, the grandson. Violinist Joseph Suk championed his grandfather's viol...

Sometimes when we see only 1 or 2 responses to one of our subjects, we might be disappointed for the lack of interest. I checked on something today where we show 4,688 responses that actually got 2,466,202 VIEWS . The Byron Janis thread shows 8 responses but got 188 views. Many people just look and ...

Wonderful visuals of those engines, Belle. It's THOSE engines (along with so much else) that are going to keep us in the air - or not! Is it a "crap shoot?" Scary thinking about it.

Not familiar with the work of Dame Ethel Smyth. I listened in on the Concerto for Violin and Horn (1927), which I thought interesting. A book on her was published that might be interesting reading. Thanks for putting this up, sir!

I just listened to the first disc of Saint-Saëns' Carnival of Animals with his wife Gina Alice, second piano and the Piano Concerto No. 2 in g , Op. 22 with Andriss Nelsons leading the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. There is no doubt about it, Lang Lang has the "chops." But the concerto was a disappo...

NOW THERE IS A GREAT VOICE! I Wish I could be there for this. Looks like a wonderful program. I wonder if she will be accompanied by a pianist as well.

I checked my live performances of Heifetz to determine if he recorded it in concert. Near as I can determine, he didn't. And you're right, many great recordings out there. Mine include Vengerov, Stern, Ughi, Rucci, Pamela Frank, Martzy, Milstein, Chang, Perlman, Menuhin, Prihoda, Kulenkampff, Krebbe...

I'm a regular viewer of Mentour Pilot. As for Qantas, I hear nothing but good about them. It is surprising that the legendary Rolls-Royce Company would have this kind of a problem, but then no one is exempt. We, as travelers, put all our trust in people producing and running these planes. Boeing see...

Poor Dvořák ... he gave us only one each of the piano, cello and violin concertos. Everyone of them is a gem. I have over 30 readings of the violin concerto, recent and historical violinists. That number probably dwarfs those I have of both the Tchaikovsky and Brahms Violin Concertos, but I would no...

I have lots of Peter Pears on disc, but his voice never touched me in the manner of so many others. On another thread, speaking about Testament CDs, I dug out Testament 1519 , an all-Schubert recital of 19 tracks recorded in 1959, 1961 and 1964 by the BBC studios in London, now apparently unavailabl...

Hey - I've got that one, too! Had it since 2005 - I was much, much younger then. And I'm older than both of you! Just got this one on eBay for a few bucks. I had the CD on my shelves eons ago, it seems, and now cannot locate it. I guess I must have "loaned" it to a friend and it disappeared into tha...

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